Red Bull facing 'hell of a fight' after overcoming depression

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner feels Max Verstappen still faces "a hell of a fight" to secure victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix despite the four-time F1 champion lifting his team out of "depression".

Whilst practice times offer only a guide to performance, the 0.845s deficit between Verstappen and pacesetter Lando Norris in his McLaren at the end of FP3 indicated that Red Bull was staring a considerable chasm to bridge.

Switching from the heat of the day and high track temperatures to the evening air and cooler tarmac around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Verstappen again delivered another stunning qualifying lap to land the 42nd pole position of his career after Norris had crashed out early in Q3.

Assessing what unfolded, speaking to Sky Sports F1, Horner said: “The engineers are continually looking to optimise the car.

“And yeah, I think the setup changes that we made definitely helped, and it gave him a car that he felt he could really attack with.

"But when you look at the margin, I think we all came out of FP3 almost slightly depressed looking and thinking, ‘Christ, it’s a battle to be on the second row here'.

"But that margin just disappeared, and that can only be one of two things: either temperature or fuel loads. So yeah, fantastic for Max and the team to get our second pole of the year."

Verstappen gives you "last ounce"

Setting off from the top spot on the grid affords Verstappen the advantage of being in clean air should he keep Oscar Piastri at bay in the early exchanges, with the Australian alongside the Dutchman on the front row.

Horner feels the McLaren driver represents Verstappen's greatest threat to claiming a 65th career victory.

"If you can convert the pole, you’ve got the benefit of running in the clean air and not being in the turbulence of a following car," added Horner.

“But what we’ve seen this weekend, the McLaren is very, very quick, particularly in race trim. So I think we’re going to have a hell of a fight on our hands to try to keep Oscar behind us.

"But we’re starting in the best possible position, so great to be going into it on pole. Honestly I did not believe that was possible going into that session.

"But it just shows you never give up. We’ve got a great team, and you keep fighting. You keep chasing the performance, and then Max, he’ll go and deliver you that last ounce of performance."